Key documents in Ruto jet hire audit missing

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The Auditor General is citing frustrations in investigating Mr Ruto’s private jet hire in May. FILE 

By EDWIN MUTAI

Posted  Tuesday, July 30  2013 at  18:25

The Auditor-General is citing difficulties in getting to the bottom of the Deputy President William Ruto private jet investigation as contractual documents cannot be traced.

It has also emerged that President Uhuru Kenyatta invoked an executive order for direct procurement to fly Mr Ruto and his entourage to four West African nations in May.

Denis Kariuki, the director of audit at Kenya National Audit Office (KENAO), stunned the Public Accounts Committee when he said the payment was done when the Integrated Information Management System (Ifmis) had been closed.

The director said the special audit into the procurement of the VistaJet plane had stalled due to lack of crucial documentation.

Mr Kariuki said he was unable to ascertain the true amount of money paid for the procurement of the jet given that two Local Service Orders (LSO) in the booklet used to pay are missing.

“The LSO booklet which was missing a number of leaves only shows that Sh18.5 million was paid for the procurement. When we asked for LSO for that period some had been plucked but a Mr Okoth who handled the matter was able to trace some of them. But two originals leaves were missing. They were 0855003 and 0855005,” he told the committee chaired by Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba.

The procurement of the flight to Congo, Gabon, Nigeria and Ghana raised controversy after the Sunday Nation published a story saying the deputy President’s private jet hire would cost taxpayers Sh100 million a year.

“We wanted to know if the LSOs could have been raised and then cancelled somewhere. However, the booklet itself had no date. It is the LSO that contains the Sh18.5 million,” said Mr Kariuki.

MPs allied to the Deputy President’s Jubilee coalition accused the auditor of failing to conclude the audit on grounds of insufficient information yet Majority Leader Adan Duale had tabled documents pertaining to the procurement and even produced comparative figures for use of air services by former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka.

“This matter has taken two months yet we gave ourselves three weeks. It is interesting to see a competent accounting body fail to deliver it within two months. These documents were tabled by Majority Leader and you should have been able to conclude the investigation,” said James Bett, the Keses MP.

Legislators Joseph Menje, Jackson Rop, Ahamed Abas, Kareke Mbiuki and Julius Melly proposed that the committee invite all those who have failed to provide the auditors with information to explain why they were impeding the independence of the Auditor.

Mr Kariuki said the two missing LSOs had no original which is usually given to suppliers, duplicates which go to the store and triplicate which remains in the booklet.

“All these documents had been removed and the two have not been provided. I cannot form an opinion on what is not available to me,” the auditor said.

The committee, therefore, resolved to invite officials from Mr Ruto’s office, the Registrar of Companies, directors of VistaJet, Lady Lori Kenya Limited and ABM Aviation, which bid for the contract and officers from the former VP’s and PM’s offices to appear over the matter next Thursday.

VistaJet quoted Sh18.5 million inclusive of taxes, Lady Lori asked for Sh19.7 million, while ABM Aviation charged Sh19.2 million exclusive of VAT and other fees.

The committee said it will also invite the management of Nation Media Group to appear as friends of the committee to help provide the invoice it published when it published the story.

“We will also ask Nation Media to help us with the information which we believe may resolve the issue of the missing LSOs. We know that we can’t summon or compel NMG on this matter because it is not part of the government,” said Mr Namwamba.

He said the meeting will aim at facilitating KENAO to secure information required but not for the MPs to write the report themselves.

The auditors said they wanted to meet the directors of the companies and know what would occasionally happen in the previous procurements by the offices of Vice President and Prime Minister to make an informed audit.

The decision to seek direction from the committee, according to Mr Kariuki, arose after the draft audit had been subjected to quality controls as required in a special audit.

emutai@ke.nationmedia.com